From the very, very old to the very, very young, everybody now say aye.
Right. Here we are. The end of the road. One long summer has passed (I think it was summer, all I noticed was rain and some people running around in singlets in East London) and it is almost time to bring the curtain up on the football season.
But before we do, my friends, there is just one preview to give. We have dealt with the defence and slightly winced. We have dealt with the midfield and were cautiously optimistic. All that leaves us to look at is the forward line, spearheaded by an old warrior, but maybe led by two young pups.
Out: Ivan Klasnic, Robbie Blake, Tope Obadeyi
In: Benik Afobe
If you want to get promoted, you are going to have to score goals. It doesn’t matter how well the defence performs or how well the midfield create chances. If you don’t put the ball in the onion bag, you aren’t going to get anywhere. And Bolton need to find, not just a goalscorer, but a striker who can stick upwards of twenty goals into the opposition net. This feat has not been performed since Super John McGinlay led Bolton to the ton of goals in 1996-97.
Don’t get me wrong, I think we have the players to do that. But to get someone to that total, then the over reliance on Kevin Davies will have to stop. Regardless of which division we play in, there will always be the tendency to smack it forward and hope his head does the rest if things are going wrong. Last season ended well for Bolton’s longest serving player, scoring four goals in the last nine games. However, it is difficult to shake off the feeling that last season saw a reduction in what he could do. He didn’t bully defences as much as he did and whilst no one wants him to be tarred with the brush of English football’s dirtiest player, his yellow card total of three was exceedingly un-SKD like.
This does not mean that he won’t be needed. Far from it. With the departures of Reo-Coker and Cahill in the past year, it is difficult to see anyone in the squad who could touch him as a leader. However, there is a danger, as there was last year, that this makes him untouchable, which cost us at times last season. This season we will be playing eight more games, and SKD was already showing signs of wear and tear last season with less games to play. Careful consideration needs to be given as to how many games he plays and the opposition he plays against. The lower leagues are known for their more, how shall, rambunctious style, and you would think that this would suit SKD down to the ground. And it would, four years ago. But he was continually beaten in the air last season by better players and no matter how good his rennaisance was at the back end of the season, it wasn’t classic SKD.
The departure of Ivan Klasnic left us with a gap for a natural goalscorer. There is no doubt that Klasnic was one of the deadliest finishers in the country last season, but he had an acute case of not wanting to be on the pitch most of the time. Neither SKD or David N’Gog are natural finishes, N’Gog challenging Fabrice Muamba in the clearing the North Stand challenge. Because of this, there was a genuine need to find a finisher, so imagine everyone’s surprise when OC said on Tuesday that Marvin Sordell was the best at the club, despite playing as many minutes for the club so far as James Sinclair.
Three days later, I still don’t understand the reasoning behind not playing Sordell more last season, preferring the terminally slothed Klasnic everytime someone was brought on. His performances at the Olympics, whilst no Daniel Sturridge, would suggest that a season back in the Championship will do him no harm whatsover, and you would expect him to get a lot more game time. In this, he should be joined by Benik Afobe, although with OC’s track record on playing, or to be more accurate not playing, his loans, you just don’t know. His three goals at Tranmere would suggest that he is another natural goalscorer, but this didn’t make OC think to start him against young Barcelona.
The old football adage of ‘if you’re good enough, you’re old enough’ should be used here and with both Tom Eaves and Michael O’Halloran also ready and willing, we suddenly have six front line strikers. I have no doubt that both Sordell and Afobe have enough ability to cause Championship defences problems. Which brings us back to shoehorning SKD into the side for the sake of it. In a 4-4-2 maybe? But a 4-5-1? Maybe a 4-3-3, but what about the quality, for the Championship, midfield we have put together? Dilemma.
And where do you put David N’Gog? His failure to hit the net last season made him unfairly maligned, but you would expect him to do more this season, given half the chance. His hold up play, I still believe, was better last season than SKD’s and whilst he didn’t score many, he got other players into the game and was a willing runner. It wasn’t his fault that behind him he had a midfield with Darren Pratley in it.
Of course, this will bring a major headache for the manager, but it is one of those headaches for which he would be grateful. If we are to line up 4-4-2, and it is my belief that he will do this to start off with, he will start with SKD and N’Gog. Because he’s like that. However, I believe that our most potent strike force will be, for the most part, SKD and Sordell, with others coming on if nothing is working (and replacing SKD as that will change tactics), but also changing tactics if need be, with Sordell and Afobe maybe playing off a deep lying SKD.
I still worry. Since the days of Michael Ricketts, twelve years ago, we have always had a problem scoring goals, even with Anelka and Diouf in the team. But with the relegation brings hope that the strikers will find their scoring boots.
If they don’t, we’re going nowhere other than midtable.